Hope you are doing ok and made it through the hurricane unscathed. I didn't work out Monday; I was way too nervous about the storm to do anything but watch outside. Did Pure Cardio and Cardio abs yesterday. I was f-ing exhausted at the end, but I think I did ok! Today I tried new Rev Abs videos. The phase 2 cardio something for 40 minutes was alright. I definitely worked up a sweat and got tired at points, but my heart rate didn't go up too much. It's probably good for a non-intense day, along the same lines as Core Cardio & Balance from Insanity. I also did the Merciless Abs (16 mins), which had a few good moves but obviously isn't better than Ab Ripper X.So how is your muscle DLD? And how is everyone else doing?

Hey there. Glad you got through the hurricane. I was in Connecticut and the hotel lost power, and soon after, heat, and then food. You'll love this, I actually did a workout at 6am by candlelight. The workout was fine, but walking through the darkened corridors of the hotel in the pitch black was a little creepy. Or more than a little. At one point I thought to myself, "hey this is like The Shining" and then I REALLY wished I hadn't thought of that. The doors were all unlocked, and trees were brushing up against walls and windows. So forking creepy. I had visions of zombies coming in through the window which just looked out into blackness as there was no power anywhere for miles. Anyway, I put my little soy candle in front of a big mirror and it plus the warm glow from my MacBook was enough to get me through Bulk:Back. Then we all had to get out of that hotel in a caravan of vans and drive to a hotel outside Philly that, amazingly, never lost power and was running fine. The drive was a bit hairy, through rain and around trees that had fallen everywhere, but got here fine. Of course, I haven't missed any workouts. Today was rest day so I did P90X+ Intervals and then Ab Ripper. What do you think about those other ab videos? Seems you still think ARX is the best? I'm gonna be sore tomorrow because I haven't done it for over 2 weeks now. Ouch. Muscles are huge. Or at least huge for me. I just passed day 60 of the Beast, with 30 to go. I get to ramp up the cardio now to lose the fat I gained along with the muscle. HOpefully will be ripped by Dec 1!

You really are absolutely insane! And so committed it's inspiring. Love it!Glad you got through it ok. Where did you go outside Philly? We could have worked out together! I also did ARX for the first time in wayy too long last Monday and I was so hurt after, haha. Love it though. Congrats on your results!

I'm about a half hour away in Havertown! Are you stuck here because of the storm still or is it for work? Can't believe you have less than a month of Beast left. Pretty cool.

I have to figure out a schedule using the 3 Beachbody programs I have, because otherwise I'm just going to do Insanity and lose more upper body strength (I have already lost too much!). Maybe 4 Insanity days per week, Yoga x, 2 P90X strength days? Maybe just switch every week? I have too many choices!

Thanks for the advice! I am going to work on some sort of alternating 2 or 3 week thing today, maybe with 4 Insanity days Week A, 3 in Week B, and alternate like that. I do want to try to do Cardio Abs 2x a week (I love the jumping, and I still find the high knees with arms above your head SO DIFFICULT), but I also want to do ARX at least 2x a week. And then with the ab part of Yoga X, do you think that's too much ab work? If so, maybe I'd do Cardio Abs in Week A and ARX in Week B. Hmm.

Congrats on your success deedah! That's pretty amazing! I'm up a few pounds from the past 1.5 years of these workouts, hahah, but I don't watch my diet for shiitake so I have no real complaints. Good for you though!

Thanks Randi! I would PAY to not have to watch my diet. Nonetheless, I watch it like a HAWK. But it's the only way I don't overeat. I was raised with one of those, "Clear your plate" moms, so I have major issues with portion control lol. One day...

Hey well, I got my report card this morning, I went for a dunk and a hydrostatic body fat test. Good news! Last time (August, before Body Beast): Weight 166, consisting of 141 pounds of lean muscle, 25 fat, and bodyfat 15.1%Today: Weight 170, consisting of 148 lbs of muscle, 22 of fat, and bodyfat 13.1%.

So, in my 75 days so far of Beasting, I gained 7 pounds of muscle, and lost 3 pounds of fat, for net gain of 4 pounds. I'm pretty happy with that!If I can do this again, in the next 75 days, I'll get down to 11% bodyfat, which was my all time low about 1 year after I started P90X. I weighed a lot less then, about 156, but I was just really lean without much definition at all. I like how I'm looking now better.

Sorry you're sick Randi! At least it's the weekend, hopefully you can nap. I'm off to my Legs workout now, which I always dread, except the calves part which is tolerable.

Hey I have new respect for Cardio Abs! Yesterday I did "pure cardio" and then was going to do ARX but tried Cardio Abs again. I held little 5lb dumbbells in my hands for all the C-Position movements which seemed to make them a lot harder! My abs were definitely tired afterward. Maybe it's not as intense as ARX, but it was good to try something different.

Okay, my waistline has expanded more than I can handle. Mostly because I bought new pants two weeks ago and they're already tight. I want to do Insanity but I know that, mentally, I can't handle the time commitment. I just will not do it. Isn't P90+ the one that's much shorter? Intensity doesn't matter, it's the 'ugh I have to do this for an hour' that will stop me from doing it. Or anything that's 20-30 minutes a day and on par with Beachbody. Maybe one of Jillian Michaels' crazy asparagus workouts?

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

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mrsbadmouth, I think Insanity would actually be the go-to if your issue is time commitment. P90X workouts are at least an hour each, with yoga being 90 minutes. Most of the strength training workouts are 50-55 minutes followed by 15 minutes of Ab Ripper X. Then you have 55ish minutes of plyo, 55ish minutes of kenpo and 90 minutes of yoga. I'm only familiar with P90X. I have Insanity but haven't done it yet, but I was told the workouts are shorter than P90X (and no extra equipment necessary!)

Deedah you totally should! You just have to be prepared to face the truth, as there's really no guesswork or fooling yourself like there could be with tapes and calipers and things.

Badmouth you may have meant P90X+, which is different from P90X, and definitely the workouts are shorter. The total length of the exercise period is about 30 minutes, and then you add maybe 7 minutes of warmup and cooldown. There are a couple good cardio workouts (Kenpo and Intervals) and a couple good resistance ones (upper body and total body).

Insanity workouts are even shorter. Randi knows them better than I do. But I know that on the "Pure Cardio" and the "Cardio Plyometric Circuit) there is a long warmup (11.5 minutes), some stretching for about 5-7 minutes, then somewhere around 12-15 minutes of INSANE stuff, then 3-4 minutes of cooldown and stretch. You could play with it though. I almost never stretch for the full amount of time, so I'm often cutting out 4-5 minutes and doing the whole thing in about 30-35 minutes total.

The only thing though is, I dunno about other folks, but I am absolutely drenched after an Insanity workout, and I often mill about for 20 minutes before I get in the shower until my body really cools all the way down.

Hello my workout buddies! I'm back from 15 days in Asia...with absolutely no working out. We were pretty active at first, climbing pagodas and walking around all day, and I tried to do push-ups every morning. But then I got travelers sickness early and could barely move or eat for a long time. I lost all my muscle tone I think and all my strength (of course didn't lose any size/weight, haha, but that's probably good). So once I fully recover I'll be starting back at the beginning. Sigh! Could be worse though of course. But I am nervous for being a beginner again! Especially for Insanity eek! My cardio is going to be horrendous.

MBM Insanity workouts are shorter than P90X, at least in the first round (58 minutes vs. 37ish). However, Shaun T includes absolutely no cool-down in Insanity. You're moving more than you thought possible in a little space, absolutely dying and your body is going crazy, and then you're done and he starts the cool-down-stretch. But it's not a cool-down, it's stationary stretching. Since that (I think) is SO harsh and bad for your body, I always do about 10 minutes of real cooling down - running in place, jumping jacks, jump rope (P90X style), and then jogging till my heart is not pounding. and I would recommend doing that. So still about 10 minutes shorter, but that's not as drastic. Also as DLD said one or two days a week is about an hour when you add Cardio Abs. And then the second month the workouts are an hour (without my included cool down). So if you are choosing based on time, I don't know what would be better. P90X+ sounds pretty good. Also, isn't TurboFire a mixture of lots of medium and short length workouts? I'm thinking of something where some days are 20 minutes or so. Not sure. Anyway hope you find something !

Hey Randi don't be too hard on yourself. When I finished my 90 days of Body Beast, I decided to take 10 full days of recovery. I just did some light yoga, some Insanity cardio, and at least half the days I did nothing at all. When I started back up again, last week, I had lost strength on every workout -- I had to back off or do fewer reps or less weight. I was bummed. But. . . . .then this past week I did the second round, and what do you know, I had gained back all the strength I had "lost" and added some more! I think this notion of "deep recovery" really works. You feel like you lose something, but then when you really hit it hard on the second round, you actually come back stronger.

Hey was this your trip to the Middle East? I was very proud I didn't urp up my lunch during my dune bashing adventure, although it was a mighty close call. How'd you fare?

Thanks DLD! And congrats on finishing the Beast! Wow! This was my trip to Burma/Myanmar, where my travel doctor rightly told me I was definitely going to get sick haha. Luckily that meant I came prepared with meds. But I'm still feeling pretty crappy. Argh. And then yes we stopped in Qatar for the last 2 days, where we did go dune bashing! I wore my sea bands so I just barely made it out without vomiting. Haha. It was crazy! Anyway thanks for the words of wisdom. I think tomorrow I'm going to start trying some yoga, and hopefully by the weekend I'll be ready for Insanity. Maybe!

Oh holy night crepe. I did Yoga X several times over the past week. The first time, I collapsed every time I tried chatarunga. Haha. Seriously, collapsed. I had no upper body strength! But the second time I was better and the next few I was fine, almost back to normal function, which is crazy and great. But...today I finally went back to Insanity, Plyo Circuit. Oh man alive. It wasn't assss bad as I expected (I didn't think I'd be able to get through it at all) but it was really hard. I had to take sooo many breaks, I couldn't keep up at all with the level 1 drills, and my throat was burning from the heavy breathing. But I did it! And I feel GREAT now, I missed it so much! Looking forward to Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs tomorrow. It'll be really hard to get back but I enjoy doing it. Hope you are all doing well.